The Top Fishing
Chapter 762 - 317: The Tourism Contest_2

Chapter 762: Chapter 317: The Tourism Contest_2

Jinyun Inn is located on one side of a large river, which is named Haoxi, despite its large size.

The water flows rapidly and is crystal clear; staying at the inn, one can hear the sound of the gurgling water. Standing in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, one could see the fog enveloping across the river and smoke spreading over Haoxi, a spectacle both majestic and elegant.

On the other side of the inn, there is an extremely beautiful small mountain.

This side of the mountain also has quite a few scenic spots, including a pair of rocks facing each other with strange shapes, resembling the figures of one standing and one kneeling.

As people passed by this place, the staff introduced that there was a story behind these rock figures.

It is said that in ancient times, a woman frugally raised her son and helped him get married and have children. However, once the son left on a journey, his wife started to disrespect her mother-in-law, oppressing and scolding her all day long.

Thus, the mother-in-law knelt on the mountain hoping for her son’s return, while the daughter-in-law stood on another mountain top, cursing and obstructing the mother-in-law; this scenario continued day after day...

Suddenly one day, a heavy downpour unexpectedly struck from the sky, and the tremendous rain gathered to form the river known today as Haoxi.

During the downpour, powerful thunder and lightning also occurred. One lightning bolt struck directly at the daughter-in-law, killing her, and her head fell into the river!

The mother-in-law, seeing her daughter-in-law struck dead, instantly understood what happened. The gods were angry, the daughter-in-law was disrespectful, so they sent down punishment. Hence, the mother-in-law knelt down, sighing in recognition of the divine will.

Afterward, to warn the world and remind children to be filial, the gods solidified two rock figures on the two mountain peaks.

One rock stood, representing the standing daughter-in-law, while the other knelt, representing the kneeling mother-in-law.

But although the daughter-in-law was standing, she was without a head because her head had already been struck by lightning into the river!

...

This story is widely known among the folk and is used as a tale to encourage children to be dutiful and daughters-in-law to respect their mothers-in-law.

Of course, in modern times, this is merely a myth.

However, viewing the beautiful scenery while listening to such stories adds a unique flavor of its own.

The guests settled in the inn, with the mountain scenery so pleasing and the water so refreshing. Everyone felt incredibly comfortable.

During the day, everyone went to nearby places like the Emperor Temple, Little Chibi, Xiandu, and Peak Lake to explore or simply took a fishing rod to fish casually in Haoxi.

At night, they gathered in a circle by the bonfire, had some barbecue, drank some alcohol, and enjoyed singing and chatting together.

Such days were comfortable and pleasant.

In Jinyun Xiandu, everyone stayed for two days, and then, following the staff’s recommendation, went to Qingtian County.

The highlight of Qingtian County is its strong South Sea and European flavor because the area is known as an Overseas Chinese Town.

There, everyone mainly strolled, ate, and shopped; there wasn’t much else to say, but everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time.

By this time, only two days were left until the start of the first competition!

Finally, the organizing committee announced the details of this first competition stage.

This time, the competition was set to take place at a location called Qianxia Lake!

The competition rule was that each club could only send one participant, and the fishing target, intriguingly, was pike!

Qianxia Lake is situated in Qingtian County in Zhe Province and is the largest fjord-type artificial lake in Zhe, following West Lake and Qiandao Lake, being the third-largest beautiful lake. It is famous for its rare highland fjord scenery and ecological beauty.

Speaking of this lake, it is actually a ’young’ entity.

Because Qianxia Lake was only put into operation in 2008, and even the name Qianxia Lake was a product of the internet era.

At that time, the local government opened a nationwide online poll to choose the name, and Qianxia Lake was selected by the highest number of votes!

The reason behind this choice was that the name matched the spectacular view of many fjords around the lake’s perimeter, ’thousand fjords around the lake.’

The surrounding mountains of Qianxia Lake are rugged and uniquely shaped, either stretching narrowly in a line or suddenly opening up into broader vistas, with stone pillars, peaks, and cliffs weaving through the grand mountains and ridges. The area includes canyons, lakes, precipices, and plateaus, each offering diverse and abundant charms.

The beauty of the entire lake area can be summarized as follows:

The mountains are rugged with lakes reflecting the scenic views.

The water quality is excellent, deep and winding.

The air is fresh with high oxygen content, nurturing abundant plant life throughout all seasons!

Now, with the powerful influence of Qingtian Overseas Chinese Town, this lake area has been developed into a top-tier international hub for leisure, vacation, and business activities.

With the first competition set here, it was also a treat for the anglers participating, as fishing amidst the captivating landscape of water and mountains was truly enjoyable!

And the target fish for this competition was unprecedented in previous contests, pike!

This kind of fish is not very common, nor is it the usual target for anglers.

Because the pike has a nickname known as "tiger of the water," this name implies its ferocity.

Pike is one of the most ferocious carnivorous fish in all natural bodies of water in our country.

Moreover, compared to those common carnivorous fish, such as Sea Bass, Gu fish, and even Black fish, pike is even more aggressive.

Even the Sea Bass, Gu fish, and Black fish mentioned above can only become prey in front of pike.

No matter the fish, as long as it appears in the pike’s sight, it becomes its hunting target.

And once it bites down, that generally marks the end of that fish’s life.

A tiger in the water, indeed.

The announcement from the organizers clearly stated why they chose pike as the target fish for this competition.

Because the waters of Qiandao Lake are originally rich in fish resources due to good water quality and rich flora and fauna that are well preserved.

However, in recent years, due to the increase in the number of pike, other fish species have been severely affected. Several smaller species listed on the pike’s menu have drastically decreased in number, even facing the risk of extinction!

So, this time, the organizers coordinated with local management authorities to simply use this competition as an opportunity to fish out a number of pike from the lake.

After all, this competition gathered the top anglers from across the nation, who otherwise wouldn’t be available during normal times.

The pike caught in this competition could either be taken by the contestants themselves or handled by the organizers—either way, they would not be released back into the lake, which also helped to optimize the ecological balance of the lake.

Seeing this news, fans who had been long waiting were also stirred up with excitement.

"It’s actually fishing for pike, this is going to be interesting!"

"Hahaha, I’ve really never seen a competition targeting pike before!"

"Pike, also known as tiger of the water, is really tough to catch because it’s so fierce!"

"Last year, I encountered a pike that wasn’t very big, but it still directly snapped my rod! Damn...."

"Hahaha, pike really are too fierce. I previously used a large rod and heavy line and it still took me days to finally catch a not-so-big one."

"I’m so envious of the person above, I’ve never even seen this so-called tiger of the water in person."

"Same here, I’m looking forward to finally seeing what it looks like in the competition!"

"Talking about pike, normally one wouldn’t use pole fishing because they are too fierce, I wonder if the organizers considered this?"

....

Amidst everyone’s anticipation, the competition started soon.

Before the start of the competition, the organizers indeed answered many anglers’ questions:

The organizers announced that, for this competition, tools other than pole fishing could be used, including lures, as well as sea rods and jig rods!

Of course, the competitors had received this notification two days earlier, so they had already prepared the rods they believed to be suitable.

Thus, a beautiful scene unfolded at the competition:

Instead of the usual arrays of long and short guns, the fishing masters had all switched to various types of jig rods and sea rods.

Of course, some anglers chose to use lures.

After all, pike are predatory fish and theoretically, any live bait, or things resembling live bait, could serve as fishing tools.

However, most still opted for sea rods and jig rods.

On one hand, probably because sea rods and jig rods still use baits and floats, which are more similar to pole fishing in essence.

And since the competitors at this event were all pole fishing experts, using similar methods felt more natural to them.

On the other hand, it was generally believed that using live bait would more likely catch pike.

But still, a considerable number of people chose lures, including Lin Yang.

He was now a true lure fishing master!

Compared to pole fishing, which he had not practiced for a long time, his proficiency in lure fishing was maxed out.

Of course, even if using sea rods or jig rods, Lin Yang’s proficiency was very high, and compared to other pole fishing experts, he was indeed a true sea fishing champion!